Cyber crime is now estimated to cost Britain £27 billion a year and according to police figures seven out of ten scams now involve an IT or cyber element.
The total number of fraud offences reported to police nearly doubled in the last financial year, up to 230,845 in 2013/14 – more than 630 a day – compared to 122,240 in the previous year. 70 per cent of these crimes now involve a ‘cyber element’, compared to around 40 per cent five or so years ago.
The number of ‘pure’ cyber crimes reported – such as computer virus attacks on companies – has also soared in the last year, from 11,523 to 22,315, while there were 494 cases of companies saying that their computer servers had been hacked.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has called for a coordinated, national response by police to fight back against cyber criminals. City of London Police chose to partner with industry leader, Kaspersky Lab, to help tackle this ever increasing problem.
“As the complexity of cyber crime constantly increases, it’s imperative that the service’s knowledge of such threats increases at the same pace,” says Detective Chief Superintendent David Clark of City of London Police.